Communications devices such as cellular telephones, mobile communication devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, and the like are becoming more prevalent as technology advances and makes these devices more powerful and more affordable. These devices are also being constructed with increasing capabilities and can now perform functions that have in the past been performed by dedicated special function communications devices. For instance, a common mobile communications device today may have computing capabilities, the ability to communicate with data networks such as the internet, a display than can render high quality still images and video, audio capabilities that allow the device to play music and video soundtracks, as well as the ability to place and receive traditional mobile telephone calls and text messages.
The expanding capabilities of mobile communications devices have allowed the improvement and enhancement of more traditional technologies. For example, voicemail has traditionally been an audio-only feature that requires a telephone connection to a voicemail server. A user would receive a message waiting notification that a voicemail is available, and the user would then have to dial into a voicemail server to listen to the message. Thanks to technological advances, visual voicemail is available on many mobile communications devices. Visual voicemail presents a visual interface to a user's voicemail box and allows the user to view attributes of voicemail and manipulate voicemail in various ways that were previously not possible. A user may delete or save voicemail through the visual interface without having to place a telephone call to a voicemail server. A user may also be able to see who the voicemail is from, when it was sent or received, and other characteristic of the voicemail without actually placing a telephone call to a voicemail server.
Currently visual voicemail systems require that a user device, such as a mobile telephone, request and download visual voicemail data for new voicemails, usually in response to a notification sent from a voicemail server to the user device indicating that a new voicemail is available. This notification may be sent to a user device using means that do not require the establishment of a data communications session. In order to download such data, however, a user device must request and establish a data communications session between the user device and a device in a wireless provider network, such as a voicemail server. When viewed in light of the Open System Interconnection Reference Model (“OSI Model”) communication between a visual voicemail client and a device in a wireless provider network may occur at the application layer using a communications session established at the transport layer, such as a transmission control protocol (TCP) session. For example, a packet data protocol (PDP) context may be activated for a user device by the operating system of the user device. This establishes communications configurations, such as an Internet protocol (IP) address, tunnel identifications, etc., that may be necessary or desired in order to set up a data communications session. Then, a data communications session, such as TCP session, may be established between an application running on the user device and a network device, such as a voicemail server. Once a session is established, a voicemail server may communicate with a user device at the application layer and transmit visual voicemail data to a user device. However, if for some reason a user device is unable to establish a data communications session, for example due to data network connectivity issues or inability to activate a PDP context, the user may not be able to gain access to a new voicemail, may not be notified of a new voicemail at all, or may not be aware of alternate methods of accessing a new voicemail.